Lydia Weber, GW #8

Lydia was born Lydia Long on 3 March 1860 to John and Mary (Nonemacher) Long of Hanover Township, near Bethlehem, Pa.  By 1880 Lydia was married to Daniel Kreidler by whom she had a son, John.  Sadly, Daniel died in 1882 leaving Lydia with their one-year-old son.  Lydia’s second husband was Charles Weber by whom she had a son, Oliver Mantz Weber in December of 1888.  Lydia was widowed again when her children were young.  She joined the Gospel Worker Society on the ground floor, her number being #8.  This is when the society was being formed, no one being sure of what it would look like.  How much street evangelism did she do?  How much traveling did she do?  Maybe not much.  She did not stay in the Gospel Worker Society, however.  She married a third time on 3 August 1895 to Polish immigrant Fred William Kramer; the marriage was performed by W B Musselman.  Together they had a daughter, Sadie, born in March of 1896.  That same year Lydia was widowed a third time.  In 1900 Lydia is living with her three children in Bethlehem, Pa., sharing her home with her widowed mother.  On 5 December 1900 Lydia married Archie McCollough in Weissport.  The marriage was officiated by R. D. Dreisbach, a preacher in the Mennonite Brethren in Christ church (now Bible Fellowship Church).  It has not yet been discovered what happened to Archie McCollough, but in subsequent census records and at her death, she used her third married name.   In 1920, Lydia is living with her married daughter in Luzerne County, Pa.  In 1930, she is still with her daughter and family but in Allentown, Pa.   Lydia died on 2 February 1932 and is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery, Bethlehem.